The World is Burning
by RainingYellowRoses
Summary: Zombie Apocalypse Reincarnation fic where Eren is 23, Erwin is 19, and Levi is 18. "It was just your average fucking day, y'know, dead body parts everywhere, mutilated corpses wandering around eating people, kids almost dying from stupidity. Y'know, just a normal day." In which Eren saves everyone but needs help saving himself. ANGST Warnings inside. Erwin/Eren Riren ErwinLeviEren
1. Chapter 1

This is totally un-beta'd and there may be mistakes. I'll fix them at some point. Also, I have no idea how fast i'll update. Reviews will probably motivate me though so y'know, review please~

Warnings for this chapter: angst, dead people(zombies), vaguely mentioned bad things happening to our lovely Eren, light drinking?, ptsd-ish, tattoos?

Also, in this story, Levi and Erwin remember their past lives but Eren(or anyone else for that matter) does not. Yet.

Enjoy!

~X~

It was just your average fucking day, y'know, dead body parts everywhere, mutilated corpses wandering around eating people, kids almost dying from stupidity. Y'know, just a normal day. At least for Eren it was, because this was his twisted broken life, and this was the zombie apocalypse.

If he's honest with himself, helping those kids was a ridiculous notion. They'd just get themselves killed, they'd get him killed. He knows. That's the way it works. If he tries to do something good it will always-always-come back to bite him in the ass. And kids are stupid. They don't know how this world burns. Even before the 'zombie apocalypse', as Eren calls it, he had been a survivor. He knew how to fight, knew how to kill in order to stay alive. He grew up on the streets, did stupid shit, made bad decisions, and he would say he regrets it except now the things he learned in his past life are the only reason he's alive today. And that's the difference between himself and the little shits that are currently sitting in front of him. He knows how to survive, they don't.

He'd been sitting in the convenience which had been his little hideout for the past few weeks eating what was probably a rotten apple and a stale piece of bread-easily the best lunch he'd had in a while-when he happened to look out the blocked out window to see a horde passing by. They were moving faster than your random zombie did. Those freaks only moved fast for one reason. Food. Which means either he had been made and needed to move right the fuck now or someone else had. But they were moving in his direction and that was weird because there was no way the walkers could smell him through the wall. He hadn't made any sound to draw them in and he wasn't at all visible, he knew because he had made sure when he chose the place. He wouldn't still be here otherwise.

But they were persistently moving towards him, so he chanced a glance out the window. At first the brunette saw nothing but then, on the ground, he noticed a few small bodies. They couldn't be older than fifteen, maybe sixteen, and they hadn't been there when he had last looked. This was perplexing because he was living in a rundown part of town in one of the largest cities on the planet. Anyone who had lived here before was either dead or a walker. He hadn't seen another living breathing person in over two months. Surely if kids had been staying around here he would have noticed, would have heard the screams when they were eaten outside his front door?

But then he saw a hand twitch. He saw a pair of slate grey eyes glance up at him and then close just as quickly as they had been opened.

They were alive.

Were those idiots really trying to play dead to escape zombies? Because he couldn't believe anyone was that honestly stupid.

But fuck, because Eren couldn't sit there and watch people die when he could help save them, not when they might be the only living people he may ever see again in his shitty little life. Even if they were filthy stupid brats. So he grabbed his bow and sprinted out the entrance of his little hideout and grabbed two of the little shits, quickly hissing 'Move', and ran. Hopefully the third was following him, there wasn't time to check. When he had safely gotten them back into the convenience store he could finally breath. He had sustained minor injuries when the brunette kid tripped, leaving a gash running down his back and effectively destroying his favorite and only shirt. But thankfully no one had been bit and he was now standing, panting slightly, and glaring at the three brats which he had shoved against the wall lined with drink cases, watching as they stared right back at him.

He thought he maybe recognized the one with black hair and an uppercut but he couldn't remember and it didn't really matter. What mattered was, at that very moment, he had an injury to attend to. So he flung off his shirt and turned around to grab a bandage, and that was one of the kids screamed.

He twisted back around so fast his neck nearly snapped, and had his bow ready and waiting to fire, but there were no walkers in sight and everything seemed calm.

"What the fuck, kid?"

The black-haired one and the blonde were staring at the their third with just as much questioning in their eyes as Eren felt. And then the dumb brat opened his mouth and gasped out a pathetic sounding, "Y-you're...you're..."

Which effectively pissed Eren off just the tiniest bit.

"I'm?" He grumbled out probably a little too harshly.

The kid pointed shakily at him before shoving a hand over his mouth and making a dash for the door yet again. And seriously, what the fuck? He had just saved this kid from the horde of walkers wandering around right outside the door and the kid wanted to throw himself right back into the metaphorical fire? He said as much, wondering what the younger was trying to accomplish and the kid managed to squeak out a quiet, "You'll kill me if you find out," while still desperately trying to get out of the jammed door.

Which honestly, Eren found to be quite perplexing. He had just done the exact opposite, hadn't he? What reason could the younger possibly have for this train of thought? But then Eren realized that if that brat managed to actually get the door open he would end up exposing all of them. The brunette would lose the only safe place he had managed to find since the disease had broken out, even before that really. It had been an excruciatingly long time since he had been able to sleep without wondering if he would be attacked before waking up. And he was not about to let that small measure of safety be stolen from him, even if he had to kill someone whom he had just rescued barely a minute ago.

Thinking this, he decided to raise his bow and tell the kid exactly what he was thinking.

"I will kill you before I let you open that door. I suggest you sit the fuck back down and calmly think about what you're tryin ta do right now. You go outside and you aren't the only one who's dead."

And finally, that got the kid to sit back down, but he was still having what appeared to be a panic attack in what the brunette considered to be his home so he figured he should probably do something about it. Looking over to the two other people in the room he noticed them staring at him. The raven with the uppercut looked like he was dissecting him and honestly that was a little unnerving, but he was incredibly beautiful and if Eren didn't have other problems at the moment he could easily find himself getting lost in the ravenette's penetrating gaze. Now that he thought about it, the blonde wasn't half bad either. For starters, the blonde appeared stronger, more muscled, than the brunette and he was strikingly handsome, with a strong jawbone and piercing blue eyes. His arms looked like they were capable of devouring him...or maybe shielding him, protecting him from the world. And now that the brunette got a good look at him, the guy was actually pretty tall, bigger than him even, and maybe Eren had been wrong about the age of the three people he had saved. He figured he might as well ask since he'd probably be living with them for a while.

Upon being asked the raven simply raised a delicate eyebrow at him, so Eren looked to the blonde who thankfully answered for the lot of them.

"I'm nineteen and he's eighteen. We just met the guy over there recently so we aren't entirely sure about him."

After seeing my slight shock at their ages-particularly the raven's, he looked much younger-the blonde spoke up again.

"Levi's older than he looks. He's just vertically challenged," he said, receiving a glare and a 'fuck you' in return.

The raven was named Levi? That seemed oddly familiar but maybe he was just thinking of the jean brand. Speaking of which, he looked down at his dark jeans and peered at the brand name before letting out a small snort of amusement.

"I'm wearing you right now," he said to the kid, who actually wasn't a kid now that he thought about it. The brunette was only a few years older him, being twenty-three. After getting a barely noticeable twitch of lips from the one named Levi he went ahead and asked the blonde what his name was, finding out it was Erwin. Looking around he managed to find the fourth person in the room hiding behind a row of snack food. Leaning down he asked him his name, to which the kid replied in a trembling voice that it was Marco.

"Well Marco, either shut the fuck up with your annoying whimpering and deal with it or tell me what exactly your problem is before you shit yourself, because really, there is no way I'm about to clean up that disgusting mess."

To which the younger brunette replied, "You're a...a...um," the kid gulped before continuing, "A Dead Fox. I saw the tattoo when you took your shirt off."

And damn it all, if his past didn't have a funny way of catching up with him. Eren sighed and stood up, glancing back at the Erwin and Levi who were looking at him somewhat questioningly, before walking over to one of the long turned off fridges, reaching in, and promptly drinking an entire can of beer before crunching it and throwing it in the garbage. Well, that helped a little bit, Eren mused to himself. Beer had never been his thing, however, even thinking about alcohol usually made him cringe, and he was already starting to feel a little off. He tended to associate alcohol with pain. But in this situation, anything was a help really. He figured shit was probably about to hit the fan, might as well numb himself a little, right? Or at least that was his train of thought before he downed the can. Honestly, he was already regretting it. Thankfully at least the only one in the room who seemed to know what those two little words meant was Marco and hopefully it stayed that way.

He walked back over to the kid and crouched down before addressing him.

"Look, kid, I'm not about to kill you just because of that. I don't just run around murdering people so get over this whole fear issue you've got goin on. Maybe your mommy told you to stay away from the trash like me, or to be afraid because we just run around killing and destroying and whatever, and that we're cold hearted evil monsters but really, I-"

"It's not that!"

"...Oh? Then what?"

At this the kid paused, taking deep breaths and staring at the ground like the devil himself was about to crawl right out of it. The elder of the two gave him a moment to collect his sanity, looking at Marco questioningly. He was honestly starting to get a little annoyed with this one. All he seemed to be able to do was whimper and cry and tremble in the corner. Maybe when the disease broke out he lost his mind or something? Not everyone can handle over seventy percent of the population being wiped out and seeing their loved ones walk around eating other humans, he supposed. It was only natural that some people would flip out.

He looked over at the other two after a long pause, waiting for the kid to gather himself, and tried to gain some information. If the kid had gone insane he really didn't want to become his keeper. He had enough baggage on his own, he didn't need anyone else's. So he asked the other two if Marco had always been like this or if it was a recent development, hoping it was just a recent occurrence and wasn't the norm for the younger brunette. The blonde answered that he had seemed fine, or as fine as someone can be in a time like this, before Eren had helped them. Which was both reassuring and a little worrisome. If that was the case then had Eren been the cause?

The brunette looked back at the kid and watched him tremble for a moment, looking conflicted with himself, before he finally took a shaky breath and spoke up.

"I...I'm a Broken Crow," he said and lifted the sleeve on his left arm to show Eren the tattoo.

The elder brunette stared for a moment, forcibly thrown back into the mindset he had before the walkers, before the death and the loss and the apocalypse. He clenched his jaw, his fist tightening where his hand was still perched on his knee from trying to hold his balance as he knelt down to talk to the kid.

Had this been just a few years ago he would have shot him on the spot, no questions asked. It was the rule, a law he had been forced to abide by. He would have ended this poor child's life for a reason as simple as it meant his own survival in a world which Eren had long grown to know was cruel and cold. This world was dark and dangerous and twisted. Eren felt sick to his stomach remembering the things he had done, would have done to Marco, to anyone from a rival gang. He had hated it, had hated the life he had been forced into. He would have killed himself long ago if his survival instinct hadn't been quite so strong. The brunette had never wanted to be what he had become. He didn't want to be like that now, or ever again for that matter. He nearly had a panic attack every time his thoughts drifted to the past, he wasn't sure he could endure much more before breaking-he was already cracked, he knew.

Wrenching himself out of his thoughts before he embarrassed himself by breaking down with an audience, he let out a bitter laugh and stood up. Inadvertently scaring the younger brunette shitless. Which reminded Eren, "If you shit on my floor I'll rip your guts out. Otherwise...well," he trailed off as he walked over to the pile of his stuff.

He had made a decision. Unzipping his bag and he pulled out his bolo knife, looking at it for a second before artfully flipping it around in his hand. He took his shirt off and turned his back to the three people in the room before twisting his arm around. The brunette didn't have to look to know where the tattoo was, he remembered getting it. He remembered the feeling of the needle repeatedly stabbing his side, running over his ribs, leaving black ink curling gracefully up his left flank. Closing his eyes and tightening his grip on the blade, Eren quickly drew the weapon up and then, as all eyes in the room were riveted to his body, swiped the knife straight down, effectively crossing out the tattoo and leaving a gash running down his side and dripping blood onto the floor.

There was a silence for a few moments as Eren stood staring the wall, his back turned. No one could see his face, so he let a tear quietly escape as he swallowed heavily. He had just crossed out a large portion if his life. He had caused so much pain, had felt so much pain in return. He had done things to survive...things had been done to him. This game of survival truly was a dark one. A shaky gasp tore itself out of his mouth as he remembered the night the elder gang members had held him down and tattooed him against his will. He remembered them drugging him, tying him down, taking off his clothes inch by inch, touching…

He was gratefully snapped out of the devastating flashback when he heard someone standing up. He glanced over his shoulder, jaw clenched, eyes guarded, to see Levi and Erwin staring him, to see Marco staring at the floor. Eren took a breath and turned around holding the knife out to the younger brunette.

"This is a new world kid. We aren't who we used to be, those laws don't apply anymore," then quieter, "this is our second chance."

The two shared a heated glance, equally tense and relieved, before the younger reached out, took the knife, and sliced through the words tattooed on his own arm.

And then, for the first time in a very long time, Eren smiled a small but very genuine smile.


	2. Chapter 2

Ok, so just a few notes before we move on to chapter 2!

pokecharmer007 brought up a point which I want to touch on just in case anyone is confused. Regarding their personalities-Essentially, Levi is still pretty much the same person but Eren is a little different. He'll become more IC as he opens up throughout the story. Cause remember how in SnK they often hint at how Eren is the way Levi used to be when he was younger? So, In this story Eren's character development has brought him to the point in life where Levi was in SnK. In my head I think of them as having somewhat similar personalities which are just in a different place of development.

Second note: This story is somewhat of a release for me, so please don't take this too seriously regarding fandom rules. I'm writing this more to help myself get over some things in my past rather than as a story for others to enjoy. I still hope everyone likes it, just please understand that that is not my main goal with this fic. ^^

Warnings: mentioned gang violence, death, angst

Ok, on to chapter 2!

~X~

Blood, blood was everywhere, that was always the first thing he always noticed. The deep crimson liquid running through his fingers, dripping down his back, oozing down his legs. Then came the darkness, and what he wouldn't give to just remember what happened. Even if it destroyed him, even if the images that came flooding back killed him inside, it was better than this not knowing. This eternal unknown was eating him alive from the inside out.

Sometimes he wished he was a walker just so that he could stop feeling for once. He always tried to maintain a somewhat rough facade. He wanted to appear that he was in control of himself, of his actions, of his emotions. But it wasn't true, it will never be true. Because Eren was and forever will be a being led by his heart. He was never going to be the smartest kid in class, or the most talented, but he was a fighter.

He remembered growing up and watching the other kids in his class effortlessly get an A like it was nothing while he struggled to simply get a C. Booksmarts were never his thing, but the brunette feels like he made up for it with street smarts. You could throw him into the middle of the ghetto with nothing and he would come out with a hundred dollars and a decent meal, while any other kid he knew would probably have ended up bleeding in a gutter if they had tried the same.

That's why he left high school, because it was never going to get him anywhere. He didn't understand what he was learning. He knew he was never getting into college. So what was the point? The only thing he was good at was fighting, so he fought. And people noticed, some would say the right people noticed, others would say the wrong people noticed. His mom would have been disappointed in him. She was always so gentle and caring, and he was a disgrace. But she wasn't here anymore, she'd died in a car accident when he was seven.

She'd been driving and he'd been in the back seat, which is what saved him. He'd blacked out from the hit to his head but had come to just in time to see the paramedics zipping up the bag around her pale body and her lifeless eyes staring into nothingness. No matter how old he got he would never forget that image, and it tormented him endlessly. Eren often found himself waking up screaming her name, panting and soaked in sweat. Nightmares were the norm for him now, with barely a night passing without his mind providing horrific images for him every time he slept. The zombie apocalypse certainly didn't help. Instead of the dream ending with his mother's body in a black bag, now it ended with her corpse stumbling towards him covered in flaking blood and caked in dirt.

And that was how he found himself waking up that morning. He bolted up into a sitting position, gasping for air. With the image of his mother's dead gaze seared into his vision he decided it was time to give up on sleep. Standing up, he moved to walk over to the machine with the drinks and flinched back in surprise when he saw another person already there. He honestly hadn't expected another person to be awake at this time of the morning, it was barely dawn after all.

He managed a weak smile and received a steely gaze in return, before continuing towards his objective. Having finally reached the machine, he reached in and pulled out a bottle of water. Looking at their supply he knew they would have to leave soon. Probably within the next week, with how fast their food was dwindling now that there were four mouths to feed rather than one.

"Nightmare?"

Eren jumped at the question, he really wasn't expecting Levi to speak. The ravenette had barely spoken a few sentences since they had first met. But the brunette supposed that they had only met yesterday and a lot had been going on. Maybe he was more talkative than the elder had first expected?

He took a sip of his water and tried to think of a response that didn't sound rude. Offensive had somewhat become the usual response from him whenever people asked him things. It hadn't always been like that, but living with people who would shoot you in the face if you said the wrong thing-if you showed weakness-had changed his outward personality a little bit. That and the fact that it was easier to be angry than depressed. He learned a long time ago that the only way to make the pain in his chest go away was to strike out. Homicidal was better than suicidal, in his opinion. Kept him alive anyways.

But he didn't want to scare away the only people he had seen in months so he opened his mouth and said, "Yea, it's fine though. Happens all the time, you should probably get used ta it."

Levi looked at him for a moment with a strange look in his eyes before looking away and grunting an affirmative. The shorter of the two then looked back at Eren with what the brunette thought was a barely concealed look of disgust. He eyed his body up and down and then scrunched up his face and looked away. The elder would have been offended but he was used to such looks of revulsion by now. If he was a different person he would have looked at himself with disgust to. He was more animal than human these days anyway.

"You could really use a shower, you're disgusting brat."

And Eren laughed, because really? Here he was getting all depressed again and the other guy just thought he was dirty? Not to mention that the raven was younger than him and had called him brat, which was weird. This was almost hilarious, and the brunette couldn't stop laughing, though it was more out of a strange mix of relief and bitterness than actual humor.

The raven was looking at him with an eyebrow raised as he continued to laugh almost hysterically, practically doubled over from the exertion. Finally able to get himself under control he managed to stand back up and smiled widely at the younger of the two.

"Guess we'll have to go out today then, huh? Try not to get yourselves killed this time. Honestly, I can't believe you guys were trying to play dead," he said, laughing.

Levi glared at him but looked somewhat amused before answering, "Shut up, Jeager. We've managed to survive this far, haven't we?"

The brunette scoffed and it was his turn to raise an eyebrow, "Yea, barely," he said before freezing and turning to look at the raven with a guarded look in his eyes.

He didn't remember telling them his last name. It wasn't widely known either. When you were a known criminal, you didn't exactly go around telling people your real name. In fact, he had made a point to do the exact opposite. His last name was a secret he had been forced to fiercely guard the past seven years of his life. It was a hard habit to break and even though it wasn't something he needed to enforce anymore, what with the government completely obliterated, it was still ingrained into his person.

"Why do you know my name?"

Eren could see the moment the other realized his mistake because his eyes widened just a fraction and his jaw clenched. Then, the raven's eyes hardened and suddenly he looked so much older than his age. The brunette figured that that's what this world did to you in the end, made you grow up too fast. He softened a little and sighed. Was it really important why the kid knew anyway? It's not like he was going to get arrested or killed because some random person knew his name. This was the end of the world, the things he cared about before didn't really seem all that important anymore.

"Look, you really shouldn't have that information, but honestly…at this point in my life I don't actually give a shit. I'd hoped Marco was the only one who knew but fuck, I suppose I should just make a fucking announcement, huh? Not like it matters anymore," he said bitterly.

Figures that of all the people he runs into at the end of the world, two of his three companions knew about his past as a Dead Fox. Eren couldn't think of any other reason why this kid would know his name besides the fact that he was either in a rival gang and was trained to know who he was so he could kill him on sight or he was in his own gang and someone had accidentally let the information slip. Which would have been a huge mistake on whoever's part that was, because Eren was fairly high up in the pecking order-he did the dirty work for the gang, he did the shit no one else had the guts to do. The idiot who let that slip, even to someone from their own sect, would have been executed immediately.

He was about to ask the raven which of the two it was when Marco spoke up from behind them with a haunted look in his eyes, "You're the hunter? I mean, I knew you were a DF but The Hunter? You're a legend! Everyone is-was-looking for you before the walkers. We were told to kill you at all costs…" he said, trailing off, "The things you've done…Jean, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie…you killed them!"

And now Marco was looking at him in horror and Levi was looking at him with an unreadable scowl on his face, and Eren was frozen. What does one say to someone who was trained to kill him? What does one say to the comrade of people he had mercilessly murdered for practically no reason other than 'I was ordered to'?

"I…I did what I had to do ta survive. They were Titans…I had no choice. It was kill or be killed. I know I'm a monster, but I truly am sor-"

Marco had slapped him. He knew he deserved it. He deserved so much more. If the younger brunette wanted to hurt him he wouldn't fight back. Eren knew he'd turned into a monster. It was the cost of survival, but sometimes he wondered if maybe he had made the wrong choice. Perhaps it would have been better to die in their place. It sounded like they had people who missed them, who had cared for them, while Eren was no one. He was nothing. Just the Hunter, a killer, inhuman.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Marco sprinting towards the door yelling, "I'd rather be dead than alive and with you!"

And then he was gone, and Eren was too late to stop him. He knew it wasn't clear outside, they were still too close to nighttime. It was dawn, the sky was a rainy muted grey, and the walkers were stumbling down the street. Marco would not survive, he hadn't taken a weapon. He wasn't prepared.

"Fuck," Eren exclaimed breathlessly, before he was grabbing his bow and dashing out the door after Marco with one last glance back and a hissed, "Levi, shut the door behind me! And stay hidden!"


	3. Chapter 3

Warnings for this chapter: character death

~X~

Honestly, he should have know better. Did he really think they were all going to walk off into the sunset and live happily ever after? What a joke. At least Levi and Erwin had actually listened to him and stayed behind at the store. They would surely have died had they not, and Eren was positive that losing all three of his new companions in one day would have been his tipping point.

Now, one might think that this all makes it sound like Marco died, but he didn't. And that's the worst part. Eren would have rather the kid had died because at least then the poor child would have been at peace. But no, that's not how it worked when Eren was involved. If something went to shit, it didn't just half-assedly go wrong, it went full on apocalyptic, blood-curdling, excruciatingly, painfully _wrong_.

Which was why Eren was currently sitting surrounded by a pile of corpses - walkers he had disembodied - with dark brown blood, old and goopy and rotten from the living dead, slowly congealing at his feet. It was why all the walkers in the vicinity were put out of their misery except for one. It was why the brunette was, at that very moment, watching as a lifeless Marco with half his face ripped off slowly went from screaming writhing agony to numb to cannibalistic corpse.

He watched as the tears which had softly caressed one side of the younger's face slowly dried and vanished. He watched as puss and smashed eyeball and black blood flowed out of the now non-existent right portion of his head. And he thought _too young, too young, too young_. Barely seventeen.

He remembered Marco's passion from earlier, even if it was directed at him in the form of anger, it was beautiful to see someone who was still so alive in a time like this. He remembered Marco's willingness to give him a second chance despite being from a rival gang. He remembered Marco's green-brown eyes so filled with hope and his gentle demeanor, so unfit for this world, and he wishes the younger brunette could have been born in a different time. Wishes he had been given the chance to live in a peaceful world.

And then Marco's hand twitched, a low moaning sound erupted from his throat, and Eren knew. It was time. He'd had to wait until the younger had changed before he could kill him or else his corpse would have simply got up and walked off, and Eren wasn't going to let this boy end like that. He would want the same done for him. It was better to be dead than a rotten walking corpse feasting on your own kind.

So he waited, and when Marco's one remaining eye opened Eren lifted his arm and stabbed his knife straight through the younger brunette's forehead. That was the end of Marco.

~X~

When he managed to make it back to his home of the past few weeks he had already become numb. Eren knew he was in shock, his brain had simply said, 'I don't want to think right now' and had shut down. He made it back purely on auto-pilot, not registering the walk back or the walkers he shot on the way. He opened the door and closed it, locking it and replacing the board he'd taken off earlier. The brunette would have forgotten about the other people in the store if not for the question which rang through the small room as he returned.

"Where's Marco?"

Ah yes, where was Marco? A good question. If Eren believed in reincarnation then maybe he was already taking his first breath in his new life, hopefully one that would be peaceful. The kid deserved as much. But what if he was just dead? There was no guarantee of an afterlife or a soul or anything quite so reassuring. The brunette used to think that maybe there was a god of some sort, a creator, or at the very least that there was a dimension beyond the physical. But he wasn't so sure anymore.

Maybe all they had was this one life and then it was over.

"He stopped."

It was Erwin this time who asked the next question, "Stopped what, Eren?"

Stopped breathing, stopped laughing, stopped crying, stopped thinking, stopped feeling, stopped…

"Existing."

The child had simply stopped existing, and it was Eren's fault, he knew. If the brunette had tried harder to hide his name, if he hadn't taken his shirt off in front of him, if he hadn't killed his friends in the first place, then Marco would have never run out and gotten himself killed. If Eren had simply stopped existing, or had never existed at all, then this would never have happened.

What was the point in him living anyway? He never saved anyone. He was a monster, he brought pain and destruction and death. Everyone he came in contact with suffered because of it, and he was tired. He was just so damn tired all the time. Life had not been kind. He was a broken animal, bleeding and dying, lashing out at those around him, and yet he was still trying to cling to life. As if he had anything to live for. It was pathetic. He should really just stop already, this wasn't helping anyone, this wasn't helping him.

"There should be enough food here to last a few weeks and after that I would suggest heading south. There's no electricity anymore since the government was shut down so winters will be cold but if you can hunt and know how to protect yourself than it shouldn't be too hard to survive. There's a small town about thirty miles from here which I think is safe, considering the small population size. I'm pretty sure it was evacuated in the beginning as well so it should be fairly empty," he told them, trying to think of what else they would need to know.

They probably didn't know how to use a bow but they could have his. It would be the safest weapon, seeing as it was both quiet and effective. Picking it up, along with his bag of clothes, he walked over and set it in front of them.

"The clothes won't fit Erwin, but they should be able to work for you. You should also learn how to use the bow instead of guns. Or if you have a knife of some sort that works to. Guns run out of bullets too fast. And they're loud. Also-"

"Don't you dare, you stupid brat. As is I'd let you run off and kill yourself. Three people is better than two for survival. Try thinking about those around you instead of just what you want."

Isn't that what he had been doing? He was trying to protect them from himself. If he removed himself from the situation then surely they would have a better chance of survival? Obviously, that would have been the case for Marco. Could these two really not see how much of a danger he was simply to have around? Maybe he'd help them survive for a few more days but the end would always be death as long as they hung around him.

"I'll only get you killed. Don't you see? I'm a _monster_. I kill people for fuck's sake! It was practically, no it was literally, my job even before the walkers. I'm a murderer. It's not safe for you to be around me. Even with Marco...if I hadn't interfered he might still be alive."

The kick to his shin and the hand roughly pulling him down to be eye level with Levi were certainly not what he had been expecting. And what he said next what equally as unexpected.

"Listen you little shit, I don't care what you've done. We've all done things we regret. You have to move past that. Living in guilt, in regret, only extends your burden. You're holding onto the pain, but you have to let go. It'll destroy you otherwise," Levi said, looking him straight in the eyes, hand still tightly grasping his too-long hair.

"But...I'm broken," Eren gasped out.

And it hurt so much, admitting it out loud. He'd always had the thought in the back of his mind, like a sickness oozing quietly into the contours of his subconscious, making a place for itself in his soul. But he'd been doing his best to ignore it, ignore the fact that he know he was missing pieces of himself, that those pieces had been unwillingly, against his consent, ripped off and stolen. Saying it out loud only made it all the more real. Eren could feel the aching emptiness hiding away in the places where his innocence and happiness used to reside. He could feel the holes in his soul and it felt like his ribs had been fractured and his heart had been brutally ripped out.

The brunette was so very fragile despite the rough exterior he always tried to maintain. After all, only a vulnerable animal feels the need to extend it's claws, to bare it's fangs to the world. It's a defense mechanism when one is at their weakest. It was his barrier, his walls, which he erected to try and block out the pain.

Then, as suddenly as Levi had painfully wrenched him down, he was being yanked backwards and out of the shorter man's grasp. For a split second he was confused and almost lashed out to cover his vulnerability, but then he was landing in strong arms, held tight with his back against a solid chest, and then his head was being titled back and up. He didn't understand at first but then a blonde head was bending down and a gentle voice was saying, "Give yourself to me. I'll take your pain, and in return I'll give you strength. Let me mend you, let me stitch you back together."

Eren thought that was probably the most romantic thing someone had ever said to him in his entire life and it made his heart skip a beat. His eyes widened and he sucked in a gasp of air. Then, before he had time to get angry - _because who the fuck did this guy think he was?_ - a mouth was descending on his and a pair of plush yet demanding lips were covering his own. A large hand was stroking down the side of his face, sliding down his neck, and then finally stilling over his heart. And then the taller man broke the searing kiss and said, "_I'll protect your heart._"

Shocked, pulse racing, and thoughts jumbled, Eren gasped. He wasn't sure if he was ok after that. It felt like his heart was simultaneously shattering and opening, ready to accept this man behind him but also so very very scared. The brunette broke free of the blonde's enchanting gaze just in time to snap his eyes back towards the ravenette and see slate eyes hardening over with anger and possessiveness. The shorter man looked jealous, Eren thought.

Then, in a vicious voice the man in front of Eren growled out, "Erwin, what exactly do you think you're doing?"

And then, "Get your filthy hands off of _my_ Eren."

~X~

Ohohohoho~ Look at all that plot up in there guys~ Look at it! XD

I think I just had a plot orgasm haha


End file.
